Into His Eyes
Transformation at the Communion Table
Among the many statements that have shaped Christian imagination, few have carried more weight than God's words to Moses:
"You cannot see My face, for man shall not see Me and live."¹
For many believers, this passage has become synonymous with fear. God's holiness appears so overwhelming that humanity cannot survive direct exposure to His presence. While Scripture certainly affirms the overwhelming nature of divine holiness, the larger biblical narrative invites us to ask a deeper question.
What exactly dies when someone sees God?
The question matters because the story of Scripture begins not with distance but with communion. Adam and Eve live openly before God, unashamed and unhidden. The tragedy of Genesis 3 is not merely that humanity sins. It is that humanity begins hiding.² The first response to rebellion is concealment. The first consequence of brokenness is fear of being fully known.
Since that moment, humanity has become remarkably skilled at hiding. We hide weakness behind competence, insecurity behind achievement, shame behind performance, and fear behind control. Yet beneath these layers remains a profound longing: the desire to be fully known and fully loved at the same time.
The biblical story may be understood as God's relentless pursuit of a humanity that has learned to hide.
The God Who Sees
Before humanity learns to see God, humanity repeatedly discovers that God sees them.
One of the earliest examples appears in the story of Hagar. Cast out, abandoned, and seemingly forgotten, she encounters the God of Israel in the wilderness and responds by giving Him a remarkable name:
"You are El Roi"—the God who sees me.³
Her astonishment does not arise simply because she has seen God. It arises because she discovers that God has seen her.
The same theme appears throughout Scripture. David writes:
"O LORD, You have searched me and known me."⁴
At first, such complete knowledge appears overwhelming. God knows every thought, every word, every hidden place of the human heart. Yet David ultimately moves from discomfort to surrender, concluding:
"Search me, O God, and know my heart."⁵
What begins as a meditation on divine knowledge becomes an act of trust.
The same pattern appears in the ministry of Jesus. The Samaritan woman discovers that Christ knows the deepest details of her life and yet continues speaking with her. Nathanael learns that Jesus saw him before they ever met. Peter encounters Christ beside the Sea of Galilee and suddenly becomes aware of his own brokenness in a way he had never experienced before.⁶
Again and again, Scripture presents a God who sees completely and loves faithfully.
This realization prepares us for one of the Bible's most important themes: the face of God.
The Face Turned Toward Us
The Hebrew Scriptures frequently speak of God's face. Modern readers often interpret such language through the lens of physical appearance, but the Hebrew word panim carries a richer meaning. It often refers not merely to facial features but to presence, relational nearness, and personal encounter.
To seek God's face is to seek His presence.
This understanding helps illuminate one of the most beloved blessings in Scripture:
"The LORD bless you and keep you;the LORD make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you;the LORD lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace."⁷
Within the ancient world, the face of a king represented favor, protection, and acceptance. To have the king's face turned toward you was to receive his attention and goodwill. Against this backdrop, the priestly blessing becomes extraordinary. The Creator of heaven and earth desires to turn His face toward His people.
Yet a tension remains throughout the Old Testament. God's people long for His presence while simultaneously fearing it.
Nowhere is this tension more evident than in Moses' request:
"Please show me Your glory."⁸
God responds by revealing His goodness and proclaiming His covenant character:
"The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness."⁹
Moses asks to see glory-God reveals goodness.
This becomes one of the most important theological moments in Scripture. The face of God cannot be separated from the character of God.
The Face Revealed
The longing that echoes throughout the Old Testament reaches its fulfillment in Jesus Christ.
John writes:
"And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory."¹⁰
The God who once dwelt behind veils now walks among ordinary people. The glory sought by Moses, anticipated by the prophets, and symbolized by temple and tabernacle is revealed in a human life.
This is why Jesus can say to Philip:
"Whoever has seen Me has seen the Father."¹¹
The statement is staggering in its implications.
Jesus does not merely teach about God-He reveals God.
Every act of compassion reveals the Father's heart. Every act of forgiveness reveals the Father's heart. Every meal shared with sinners reveals the Father's heart. Every tear shed at Lazarus's tomb reveals the Father's heart.
Paul summarizes this reality beautifully when he speaks of:
"The light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."¹²
The face sought throughout the Scriptures is revealed in Christ, yet the greatest surprise is not simply that God's face has been revealed. The greatest surprise is what humanity discovers when it finally looks upon Him.
The face revealed in Jesus is not characterized by hostility but compassion. It is not dominated by condemnation but mercy. The God humanity feared is revealed to be the God who has been pursuing communion all along.
What Dies When We See God?
This brings us back to the question with which we began.
What exactly dies when someone sees God?
Scripture's answer is surprisingly hopeful.
Isaiah cries that he is undone, Peter falls before Christ, John collapses before the risen Lord, yet none of them are destroyed. Instead, they are transformed.¹³
What dies is not the person, but rather their illusion. The false self constructed through fear, shame, performance, pride, and self-protection cannot remain unchanged in the presence of divine truth. Human beings spend much of their lives building identities around achievement, reputation, competence, influence, or even religious performance. Yet these identities remain fragile because they depend upon constant maintenance.
The presence of Christ exposes that fragility, not because God delights in dismantling people, but because He desires to free them.
Sanctification is therefore more than moral improvement. It is the gradual surrender of everything false so that the true image of God within a person may emerge more clearly. The God revealed in Jesus Christ does not merely forgive human brokenness; He patiently restores humanity to the life for which it was created.
The miracle of the Christian life is not simply that sinners are forgiven.
The miracle is that people who have spent their lives hiding can gradually learn to live openly before the face of God.
The Communion Table
The biblical story does not end with revelation. It moves toward participation.
Throughout Scripture, communion with God is frequently expressed through the imagery of shared meals. One of the most remarkable examples occurs at Sinai when Moses and the elders of Israel ascend the mountain.
The text records something astonishing:
"They beheld God, and ate and drank."¹⁴
Seeing God and sharing a meal become intertwined.
This theme reaches its fulfillment in Jesus.
Again and again, Christ is found at a table. He eats with sinners, tax collectors, Pharisees, disciples, and outcasts. His ministry repeatedly transforms ordinary meals into places of revelation, healing, and belonging.
On the night before His crucifixion, Jesus takes bread and wine and establishes a covenant meal that will define the life of His followers:
"This is my body, which is given for you."¹⁵
The communion table becomes more than a memorial. It becomes the place where redeemed humanity learns once again how to remain before the face of God.
Each time believers gather around the table, they enact a profound truth. They come into the presence of the One who knows them completely and loves them perfectly. They come not because they have mastered holiness but because they have encountered mercy.
In this sense, communion becomes a school of sanctification. Week after week, believers learn to remain before Christ without retreating into concealment.
Into His Eyes
The final pages of Scripture bring the story to its completion.
After the renewal of creation and the restoration of all things, John describes the destiny of God's people with remarkable simplicity:
"They will see His face."¹⁶
The story that began with humanity hiding among the trees concludes with humanity dwelling openly before God.
The longing of Moses is fulfilled, the hope of the prophets is fulfilled, the work of Christ is fulfilled. The face humanity feared is revealed to be the face of love.
For those of us within the TOV Community, this truth carries profound implications. The purpose of covenant community is not merely theological agreement or spiritual information. The deeper purpose is communion. We gather because Christ has gathered us. We learn to know one another because Christ has first known us. We bear one another's burdens because Christ has borne ours.
In this sense, community itself becomes an extension of the communion table.
Every shared meal, every prayer, every confession, every act of forgiveness, and every burden carried together becomes an opportunity to practice the reality toward which Scripture points. We are learning, together, how to stop hiding.
Until the day when we finally stand before Christ and see His face, the Church continues gathering around the table. We come not because restoration is complete, but because restoration has begun. We come because the face revealed in Jesus Christ has shown us that the God we feared was always the God who loved us.
And as we learn to remain in His presence, we discover that the deepest transformation of the Christian life is not becoming someone else. It is becoming who we were created to be from the very beginning: sons and daughters who no longer hide from the face of God.
Footnotes
Exodus 33:20.
Genesis 3:7–10.
Genesis 16:13.
Psalm 139:1.
Psalm 139:23.
Luke 5:1–11; John 1:47–49; John 4:1–30.
Numbers 6:24–26.
Exodus 33:18.
Exodus 34:6–7.
John 1:14.
John 14:9.
2 Corinthians 4:6.
Isaiah 6:1–8; Luke 5:8–11; Revelation 1:17–18.
Exodus 24:11.
Luke 22:19–20.
Revelation 22:4.
Select Bibliography
The Holy Bible.
Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies.
Athanasius of Alexandria, On the Incarnation.
Gregory of Nyssa, Life of Moses.
Augustine of Hippo, Confessions.
N. T. Wright, Paul and the Faithfulness of God.
John Walton, The Lost World of Genesis One.
Michael Heiser, The Unseen Realm.
Scot McKnight, A Fellowship of Differents.
M. Robert Mulholland Jr., Invitation to a Journey.Transformation at the Communion Table
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